Yellowcake "A Fragmented Truth"

 

The savage Arizona based d-beat/crust punk band, Yellowcake, continues to show beyond a doubt why they are one of the most sadistic sounding bands around with their new release, “A Fragmented Truth.” Following up their profoundly vicious debut release, "Can You See The Future,” the band dives even further down into the entropic sounding anarchistic punk abyss to unleash a punishing firestorm of distorted hostility. 

Right away, I would consider the songs on, “A Fragmented Truth,” to be even more intense, more antagonistic sounding and just down right deafening. "Can You See The Future,” in my opening had an extremely impactful sound, as well as captured the band’s ferocious nature perfectly. I felt as though on this release the band was a little bit more untamed at times and that allowed the feverish instrumental compositions to really buildup this overwhelmingly fearsome momentum. In terms of the vocals and how they were executed, I think the band’s singer once again delivered a strong performance, and from the first track you become instantly hooked by her undeniably confident presence when emphasizing lyrics. 

Once again, the band’s drummer hammers out some monstrously primitive rhythms from behind the kit to give songs like, “Maelstrom” and “Blood Soaked System,” an extra boost of raw aggression. Also, I thought the riffs on this new release ventured in some different directions at times, like on the song, “When Night Comes Around,” which had a slight crossover punk/thrash sound. On the fifth song, “Vinyl Chloride Rain,” the bass player and drummer slowly built-up the music with a catchy sounding jam that gets eventually washed away by an incinerating hardcore sounding onslaught. The singer injects a tremendous amount of rage while shouting out the lyrics over the chaotic soundscape, which I must say allows you to easily remember the title of the song. 

The last song, “Mind Scabbed Over,” happens to be the longest track on the release with a total run time of 3 minutes and 15 second. Yellowcake does not need an extensive amount of time to make an impact and that can be proven with their debut demo as well as these new songs. I thought, “Mind Scabbed Over,” was a crushing old school sounding hardcore offering that will appeal to wide range of ravenous punk fanatics. My only complaint is that I wish there were more songs and I look forward to the day Yellowcake compiles enough songs to make a full-length album. 

My final thoughts on this new Yellowcake release, “A Fragmented Truth,” are that the band shows no signs of stopping their fiendish push to offer up some blistering sounding hardcore/d-beat/crust punk tracks, while coming up with ways to hit the listener straight in the gut with a fistful of sonic devastation. Still, “Visage of the Flame,” is the best Yellowcake song to date in my opinion, but the songs on the new release definitely do not disappoint and I bet will be utterly insane to hear when performed live. I'm glad Yellowcake was able to still demonstrate that uncompromising mentality on this new release, as I do believe that their unrelenting mindset in terms of writing and recording material will really propel them as they fight their way into the future. 

Listen to "A Fragmented Truth" below via Felopunk's Youtube Channel :

Link to where you can buy/order the album :

https://totalpeace.bandcamp.com/album/a-fragmented-truth

Yellowcake Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/yellowcakephx/

Yellowcake "Can You See the Future?"

    From a pandemic to now the threat of nuclear war, the world is completely falling apart and chaos seems to be lurking around every corner. Sometimes you ask yourself, “Is there even going to be a future?” I think that is what caught my attention right away when I came upon this new EP titled, “Can You See the Future,” from the Arizona based hardcore punk outfit Yellowcake. This band comes along at the right time to offer listeners a blistering hardcore punk release.  

    Yellowcake’s sound and presentation is not over the top and the band does not write cryptic dribble to impress scholarly minds. The band’s raw aggression is perfectly recorded on each track, while also maintaining that savagely destructive hardcore punk mindset. On each track you find yourself listening with great interest as the bombastic arrangements come crashing out of your speakers like an explosion from a neutron bomb. 

    Musically, the band plays with a fiendish energy which can be heard on every riff throughout the EP. The band’s drummer adds a massive amount of pulverizing d-beat rhythms, and the first song, “Can You See the Future,” is an unbelievably loud onslaught that hits you right in the face. Along with the tight sounding instrumental arrangements, I really liked the vocal delivery by the band's singer. There is relentless passion, raw anger and honest artistic expression behind every lyric. For example, the screams on the song, “Eradicated Peace,” are extremely haunting and perfectly compliment the frantic guitar riffs. 

    Another track which features some utterly vicious sounding riffs is, “Indiscriminate Shelling.” During the opening of the song the band unleashes a merciless attack by coming up with a hellish galloping style riff. One again, the singer provides simple and straightforward lyrics to emphasize the song’s profound message. On the following track, “Visage of the Flame,” I was extremely impressed by how the band came up with such a scorching piece of music. For some reason the singer’s vocal delivery during the song reminded me of Penelope Houston the singer from classic SF punk rockers, The Avengers. There is this inner ferocity that comes bursting out and infuses itself with the vividly distorted sounding chaos. 

    Although the EP is not very long, which is pretty typical for hardcore punk music, the band proves to be more than capable of getting their point across and laying down some deafening tracks. If you are fan of punishing hardcore punk that strikes without any remorse, then you need to check out this EP. The future does look pretty bleak right now, however, I hope Yellowcake is able to put out another monstrous release before the skies turn to ash and those of us who survive have to walk around wearing hazmat suits. 

Check out the full EP below: 

Link to Yellowcake's Bandcamp:

https://yellowcakephx.bandcamp.com/releases